A Gluten-Free Test Drive

Movie night with the girls has changed a bit over the years. In high school, my regular dates with my best friends consisted of whatever bad (or awesomely bad) movies and junk food we could find. The night we watched Excess Baggage is still talked about to this day. Since college, though, we've toned it down a bit... foodwise. For our latest gathering, we had fresh Maine shrimp (since the season's so short), nachos, plenty of wine, and some gluten-free goodies as per one friend's diet.

Now, I've never worked with specifically gluten-free products before. Sure, I've made lots of stuff without wheat, but using GF flour, etc, was different. I had a hell of a time tracking some stuff down, and I gave up on the xantham gum (apparently an important ingredient) when even Whole Foods didn't have any. All in all, my efforts weren't too bad. I managed to make some kind of chickpea cracker, mini quiches, and these awesome mint bars. My GF friend took all the leftovers home and fed them to everyone in her family over Christmas. Hell, I would even make these on a regular basis for myself, gluten-free or not!

Gluten-Free Mint Bars

Crust:
1 stick unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp GF vanilla
1/2 cup GF flour (I used Bob's)
1/2 cup almond flour
pint of salt
Mint icing:
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 cups confections' sugar
2-6 Tbsp heavy cream
1-1 1/2 tsp mint extract
Glaze:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 9 inche square pan.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and blend. Stir in chocolate and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients, blending well. Pour into pan and spread evenly. Bake for 15 minutes and cool completely.

For icing, cream butter and sugar. Add mint extract and just enough cream to make icing thin enough to spread. Spread over cooled crust.

For glaze, melt chocolate and whisk in butter. Spread over icing. Allow to harden before cutting.